[Updated] The Keith Haring sculpture is currently MIA outside 51 Astor Place

The Keith Haring sculpture — "Self Portrait" from 1989 — is no longer on its perch outside the DeathStar, aka 51 Astor Place. It has been MIA all week. No word on whether this is a temporary or permanent departure.

We reached out to the Keith Haring Foundation (see below)... and we'll see if anyone at No. 51 has an answer.

The sculpture arrived in December 2014...



Updated 2 p.m.

Word is the sculpture is being repaired and will return this fall.

Updated 9 p.m.

"The sculpture has been removed for minor conservation work, and will be reinstalled after this work is complete," Annelise Ream, director of collections at the Keith Haring Foundation, told me in an email. "We do not yet have a confirmed date for the return of the sculpture, as there may be some delays in light of the ongoing pandemic."

A boutique office building a possibility for Broadway and 11th Street

[Image via Wikipedia Commons]

Last spring, The Real Deal reported that Normandy Real Estate Partners was in contract to buy 797-799 Broadway at 11th Street for somewhere in the $100 million ballpark.

Now The Real Deal hears what might be in the works for the corner:

Normandy Real Estate Partners and Ares Management are weighing plans to develop a boutique office building on Broadway ... not far from the commercial property at 51 Astor Place that locals have dubbed the Death Star ...

The partners would develop a 200,000-square-foot, Class A office building at 797-799 Broadway, which they bought last summer for $101 million, as TRD reported at the time.

A 138,000-square-foot Class B office building ... now sits on the site, and the developers would not be able to begin construction until leases expire in 2019. The tenants are a mix of medical offices and small-time retailers.

51 Astor Place/the IBM Watson Building/Death Star is 400,000 square feet, so this new project, while quite larger than the current building, would still be half the size of its neighborhood to the southeast.

797-799 Broadway is noteworthy for many reasons. It opened in 1853 as the St. Denis Hotel, which is where Ulysses S. Grant wrote his post-Civil War memoirs and Alexander Graham Bell provided the first demonstration of the telephone to New Yorkers.

Today in $370 million loans

[EVG photo from last fall]

Here's news concerning 51 Astor Place/the IBM Watson Building/Death Star via the Commercial Observer:

Two major lenders took to Astor Place for another mega-deal in the hip college neighborhood.

Bank of America and Barclays provided New York-based Edward J. Minskoff Equities with a $370 million loan on the firm’s 51 Astor Place office tower ...

The real estate acquisition and development firm is using the loan to refinance and pay off construction financing on the office building...

According to estimates, development of the building cost some $300 million. The office part of the building is fully occupied ... with the first retail tenant — CVS, woot — on its way.

What would you do with a $370 million loan?

Report: $13 billion hedge fund coming to the Deathstar

[Photo via IBM]

Been meaning to relay this bit of news from The Real Deal last week:

Tudor Investment Corporation, a $13 billion hedge fund led by Robin Hood Foundation co-chairman Paul Tudor Jones II, is coming to Edward Minskoff's 51 Astor Place.

The hedge funders are taking the entire 11th floor. And maybe your soul.

A record deal at 51 Astor Place (AND STOP CALLING THIS AREA MIDTOWN SOUTH!)

Let's head over to The Real Deal for this story:

Claren Road Asset Management, a credit-focused money manager that is a subsidiary of private equity giant the Carlyle Group, will take the top floor of Edward Minskoff’s 51 Astor Place, The Real Deal has learned. The 25,401-square-foot space was asking a rent of $118 per square foot, a record for Midtown South. Sources familiar with the transaction said that it was likely the priciest per-square-foot deal struck in the neighborhood.

With this lease, 51 Astor Place/DeathStar/the IBM Watson building is now 85 percent, uh, leased.

Now can we look at a map please. Oh, here is an official one from the city of New York.



OK, you see where Midtown South is on the map? And you see this neighborhood?



Anyway, everyone knows that this area is known as WeAs (West of Astor) or LeLa (left of Lafayette Street, depending on which way you are facing).

Previously on EV Grieve:
Report: Maps show that Midtown South does NOT include the East Village/Astor Place

My dear Watson: 51 Astor Place is now the IBM Watson building

[Photo via @IBM]

A few more details have emerged in the aftermath of last Thursday's announcement that IBM is opening a new business unit surrounding its "Jeopardy"-ass-kicking super computer at 51 Astor Place.

For starters, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that IBM beat out Twitter for the 120,000-square-foot space.

IBM moved quickly to secure its spot in the 12-story tower by Astor Square, negotiating the details of the lease in just four days, said Edward Minskoff, the building's developer. "Twitter's a wonderful company and I would love to have been able to do both deals," Mr. Minskoff said.

And!

The building has been renamed — Please welcome the IBM Watson building to the neighborhood!

Per the Journal, the 12-story building is more than half-rented—with IBM, a 71,000-square-foot lease with St. John's University and a 42,000-square-foot lease with 1stdib. Leases on another three floors three floors are being negotiated.

Minskoff had said he'd fully lease 51 Astor Place by the end of this month.

Death Star crane construction KOs half of Third Avenue today

Crews here from the Galactic Empire to install the superlaser weapon to work on 51 Astor Place.

Previously.

51 Astor Place, now with a branded sidewalk bridge

[Bobby Williams]

Letting the world know what's coming to the crossroads of the East Village... and in the corner: "Occupancy Spring 2013." Or, 53,672 more blog posts on the topic...

Previously on EV Grieve:
51 Astor Place demolition begins July 1; 17 months to build new black-glass tower

East Village — the new Midtown?

51 Astor Place Death Star more Death Starry than previously thought

Hoo boy.

Curbed has the news this morning that a 51 Astor Place website is up and running... featuring new, more imposing, renderings....

Curbed notes several of the building features: a private green roof on the fifth floor, a tenant-accessible green roof on the 13th floor, and an urban plaza on the corner of Astor Place and Third Avenue.

And Curbed also hears that IBM and Microsoft are looking at office space here.

We'll be back with more after running over to the Continental for five shots of anything for $10.

Previously on EV Grieve:
51 Astor Place demolition begins July 1; 17 months to build new black-glass tower

East Village — the new Midtown?

Workers chopping down the trees at 51 Astor Place